


Take a Break

by WishingOnWhishaw



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Board Games, Cooking, Cooking Lessons, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Hanukkah, M/M, Movie Night, Power Outage, Sleepy Cuddles, Snow Angels, Snow Day, Snowed In, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 23:07:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5267339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishingOnWhishaw/pseuds/WishingOnWhishaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan had planned to go home to his family for the holiday season until his plans fall through last minute. Luckily his boyfriend is more than happy to take some time off with him.</p><p>Written as a fill for two separate prompts on tumblr which asked for these two cooking and then caught in a snowstorm power outage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take a Break

**Author's Note:**

> I got very very carried away with this. There's a lot of stuff which wasn't in either of the prompts but I just sort of took the idea and ran. I don't know, enjoy your nearly 4K of gays being gay and sweet and happy together bc not much else happens here. I'd say sorry, but I'm not.
> 
> Title is a subtle reference to a certain song by Lin-Manuel Miranda. They're not quite running away for the summer, but cookies to you if you understand anyway.

Dan and Barry had been meaning to get away together for what felt like months, and mostly at Barry’s insistence. The eldest of the two had been stressed beyond belief, and Barry knew their work was important, but he hated seeing Dan losing sleep and getting down over it. Sadly, their schedules didn’t allow for them to just drop everything at the drop of a hat and take a week-long vacation, no matter how much they needed it. So instead, they waited it out until the holidays rolled around and decided they’d do something then, with just the two of them. Given both of their family backgrounds, they weren’t exactly expected to be home for Christmas, though that would’ve been the easiest time for a break, given that everything stopped at that time of year. Instead, Dan had preemptively made sure that he’d be able to fly home and get some time with his family for Hanukkah, taking care not to plan anything that week unless it was very important. His plan was to go back now for a while and then to take some time out with Barry when all of the other grumps went off at the end of the month for Christmas celebrations.   
  
However, Dan’s plan fell through on him when he got a call from his Dad two days before Dan was set to leave California. Apparently, Danny’s parents were now going to be spending their holiday with his family in Israel, who had made a last minute invitation which apparently didn’t extend to Dan himself. And sure, he probably could’ve gone no problem, but another 12 hours on a plane wasn’t something he was all too keen for, and so he decided to give that particular get together a miss. And so Dan was left with tickets for a return flight home and and nobody to go home to. Great.  
  
“Everything alright?” Barry asked when Dan hung up the phone, having been watching his boyfriend with slight concern and trying to decipher what the conversation was about despite only being able to hear half of it.  
  
“I guess,” he shrugged, letting out a long sigh of disappointment and frustration as he dropped the phone onto the couch beside him. “I mean, yeah, everything’s okay.”  
  
“You don’t look okay,” Barry observed, finally moving from where he had been stood in the kitchen doorway, heading over to the couch and handing Danny the cup of tea he had made for him. “You look bummed out.”  
  
“That was my dad,” Danny explained, taking the hot cup with a grateful smile that looked out of place on his otherwise disappointed face. “He and my mom aren’t gonna be there this week because his family have asked him to come home.”  
  
“Man, that sucks. I’m sorry, Dan.”  
  
“It’s okay,” Dan assured, carefully shifting closer to the other man on the couch. “It’s just kinda frustrating that I kept this week clear so I could have time to go home and now I’ve got no reason to.”  
  
“No way, you totally have a reason to,” Barry protested, leaning into Dan’s side as he turned on the TV. “You still need a break, I’m not letting you work through your week off.”  
  
“There’s no point in me having a week off if I have no-one to spend it with,” Dan argued.

“So just spend it with me,” suggested Barry, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I have nothing going on anyway. I’ll talk to Arin if you want, see if we can both take a vacation?”  
  
“A vacation where?”  
  
“Well, you already have a plane ticket to New Jersey, and an empty house waiting for you there. You still get to go home and relax, and we can have mildly Jewish holiday celebration. I’ll even make you latkes, if you want,” he added without a hint of teasing in his voice. Dan giggled at the mental image of Barry in his old house, cooking for him.  
  
“You wanna come home with me for Hanukkah?”  
  
“I mean, this is _our_ home already, so not really. But yeah, I’ll come home with you, if you want me too. Things at the office shouldn’t be that busy anyway, since you’re already gonna be out of town.”  
  
“I guess,” Dan hummed, sipping at his tea as he considered it. He knew that whenever one of them was gone there seemed to be a sort of lull anyway, and they always stockpiled some stuff for when any of the grumps would be gone. It shouldn’t be too much of an issue if Barry did decide to go, and Dan had to admit that he like the thought of finally getting a week off for just the two of them.  
  
“So I’ll check with Arin?” Barry asked, and Dan’s grin widened at the hopeful lilt in his boyfriend’s voice.  
  
“Yeah, check with Arin,” chuckled Dan, hoping that his new back-up plan wouldn’t also go down the drain.  
  
It didn’t.  
  


* * *

  
Barry awoke early after having slept on their overnight flight anyway, sitting up in Danny’s old bed and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. They hadn’t even bothered to unpack or do anything beside look around when they’d arrived in the early hours this morning, their suitcases on the floor left open from where they had both taken out their nightclothes. The house was cold, and Barry cast one glance at his boyfriend still fast asleep beside him and immediately knew that he couldn’t wake him. So instead, Barry got up and decided to take it upon himself to turn the heat on.  
  
He felt a little strange as he wandered through the unfamiliar, the dull light of the early morning barely filtering in through the covered windows. He was still groggy after he had found the furnace, and returned to the kitchen with the intention of making himself coffee. It was only after he had got the machine to work that he got a glimpse out of the back door and his eyes went wide. He felt a childish excitement race through him, but he couldn’t help it, and ran back upstairs to Dan’s room where the man was just stirring from sleep.  
  
“Danny, you gotta see this!” He exclaimed when he saw the older man was awake, not even trying to contain his enthusiasm.  
  
“If you found my mom’s collection of herbal teas, I know, it’s ridiculous. And you always say that I was bad, mine’s nothing compa-”  
  
“I’m not talking about tea, Dan,” Barry laughed, grabbing Dan by the hands and pulling him to his feet. “Just come see!”  
  
“Jesus, Bar, let a man wake up before you get all handsy,” Danny teased as he was dragged across the room, confusion evident on his face as he was led to the window rather than the door. However, it all made sense when Barry flung his curtains open and Dan could see the huge flecks of white falling from the sky, sticking to the dry ground outside and already forming a thin blanket over everything.  
  
“It’s snowing!” The younger man squealed, and Dan couldn’t help but laugh fondly as he stood behind him, wrapped his arms around Barry and rested his chin on his lover’s shoulder to observe the snow.  
  
“I can see that,” Dan hummed, nuzzling at the shorter man’s neck affectionately. “Man, I don’t think I’ve even seen snow in years.”  
  
“Not since I lived in New York,” Barry agreed, calming slightly under Dan’s touch. “You think it’s gonna keep coming?”  
  
“It’s definitely cold enough for it,” he replied thoughtfully, tilting his head a little to observe the bleak, grey clouds which covered the sky overhead. “Yeah, I’d say we’re in for at least a few hours of it.”  
  
“I’m so glad we don’t have to be out in this,” Barry sighed, shuddering at just the thought of trudging through the snow in the morning, getting cold and wet and having to deal with it all day. Dan pouted as he kissed Barry’s neck, more concerned with his boyfriend than the weather.  
  
“You don’t wanna make snow angels with me?” He asked, feigning disappointment and getting an eyeroll from his boyfriend who twisted in his arms.   
  
“If we make snow angels then I can guarantee I will need a hot bath and probably a lot of cuddles afterwards.”  
  
“I can deal with that,” Dan replied, shrugging one shoulder and pressing another kiss to the tip of Barry’s nose, making him scrunch up his face which in turn had Dan laughing fondly. “Okay, snow angels later, if it gets deep enough. Breakfast first?”  
  
“Breakfast first,” Barry agreed with a nod, slipping out of Danny’s embrace and heading downstairs to the kitchen again. He fixed his coffee and went in search for the tea collection Dan had previously mentioned. “Holy shit,” he said when he opened the cupboard said collection was stored in.   
  
“Told you,” Dan said from behind the open door of the refrigerator which he was currently rummaging through, taking stock of what little was left in there and not even needing to look at what Barry had found.  
  
“Okay, what the hell do you want? There’s too many for me to guess.”  
  
“Does she still have that chocolate and ginger stuff here?” Dan asked, going over to help Barry look. “Oh, there,” he said as he spotted it on the top shelf, leaning up over his boyfriend to grab it and hand it to Barry before returning to his previous task of supply checking. “I think we’re gonna need to go to the store.”  
  
“Can we go soon before the weather gets worse?” Asked Barry as he left Dan’s tea to brew and turned to face him.  
  
“Yeah, after breakfast?”

“What’s on the menu?”  
  
“There’s just enough eggs here for me to make pancakes,” he replied, making Barry laugh.  
  
“You mean for me to make pancakes,” he corrected gently before taking a sip of his coffee, remembering the time Dan had tried to cook him breakfast as a surprise back home, and had instead woke Barry up with the smoke alarms he’d set off.  
  
“I’m not as bad as I was when we first moved in together!” Dan tried to protest, and he was right there. Barry would admit that Danny’s cooking skills had been improving, albeit slowly.  
  
“True, but I still make better pancakes. You can help me with dinner later?” He offered, going back to Dan’s tea and disposing of the leaves in the strainer.  
  
“You make breakfast, I’ll drive us to the store, we both make dinner,” Dan said with a nod, accepting his tea from Barry and pressing a chaste kiss to his lover’s lips as thanks. “Sounds like a plan.”  
  


* * *

  
Their day was spent as one often spends time whilst on vacation: doing virtually nothing. After breakfast and their trip to the store, Barry and Dan settled down on the couch with a couple of blankets and binge-watched the first two Lord of the Rings movies at Dan’s insistence. Barry was more than happy to sit through the extended editions since his sitting actually consisted of laying on Dan and making a considerable dent in the candy he’d bought that morning. When _The Two Towers_ had ended, Dan turned off the TV and looked at Barry with a grin. The snow had been falling steadily all day, not really heavy, but consistently enough to form a three inch sheet on the ground, that was, the ground which hadn’t been walked on. Just like the ground in Dan’s garden.  
  
“You promised me snow angels,” Dan said he pulled the blankets off them and moved to get off the couch. He was still in the jeans and T-shirt he had worn out that morning, as was Barry himself.  
  
“We have to do that now?” The younger man groaned, casting a glance to the window.   
  
“Yup!” Dan replied cheerfully, hopping up and smiling even further at Barry’s groan. “It’ll be fun babe, I promise,” he added sincerely. “You wait here, I’ll go get some warmer clothes from upstairs.”  
  
“I’ll be warmer if I stay inside!” Barry yelled at his boyfriend’s retreating form, heaving a sigh as he heard footsteps racing upstairs. Dan returned a few minutes later, with hats, scarves and gloves, thick, waterproof coats and what looked like a dozen pairs of socks.  
  
Barry was grateful for all Dan’s additional clothing when they got outside, and he had to admit it, he had fun laying on the ground making an angel on the ground next to Dan.  
  
“They look like they could be holding hands!” Dan said happily when they’d gotten up again and observed their creations side-by-side on the snow-covered grass.  
  
“They’re not holding hands Dan, that would be gay,” Barry replied sarcastically, and Danny sniggered to himself, a childish giggle that he couldn’t suppress as he replied:  
  
“They’re gay-ngels!” Barry responded by throwing a snowball at Dan, even if the ridiculous pun had made him laugh. This escalated into a full on snowball fight that only ended when Dan made a white flag on a white pole on top of his makeshift fort which he had to lay on his stomach to hide behind. They went back inside and stripped from their cold, wet clothes and hurried to the bath, which Dan insisted on them sharing. “It’s big enough, and we’ll get warm faster, c’mon,” was actually the extent of his insisting, but Barry didn’t need a lot of convincing to get into a tub of hot water and relax as he sat between Dan’s legs.   
  
They sat in the water until Barry could feel all his extremities again, and the tips of Dan’s fingers had gone wrinkly. When they got out, Dan wrapped himself and Barry in fluffy towels which he’d left to warm whilst they were in the bath.   
  
By the time they dried off and got back into their PJs, it was already dark outside, and they drew the curtains and the blinds before returning to the kitchen where Barry began pulling out the ingredients they’d bought earlier.  
  
“You wanna make the meatballs, and I’ll do the sauce?” Barry asked as he set a jar of passata on the counter.  
  
“Sounds good to me, chef,” Dan replied, grabbing the mince that Barry had already retrieved from the fridge and a large bowl which he could put it in. “But you’re gonna have to give me directions, because I’ve never made them from scratch.  
  
“That’s fine,” the younger man responded as he rummaged for suitable pots and pans in which to make their spaghetti and meatballs. “They’re not that difficult, you just need to mix the meat with an egg and half a cup of breadcrumbs. Oh, and put some herbs in there too.”  
  
“You do the herb part; I’ll end up adding too much rosemary or something,” Dan said, going off to get the herbs since Barry was busy chopping an onion. He set them to one side and got to mixing the other ingredients together, letting out a cry which had Barry turning away from the pan he was currently frying onions and garlic in.  
  
“Are you okay?” He asked, concern in his voice and worry evident on his face as he tried to think what Dan could possibly have done.  
  
“Dude, this feels gross,” Dan replied, crinkling his face and poking out his tongue in disgust.  
  
“You asshole, I thought you’d hurt yourself or something!” Barry laughed, shaking his head and turning down the heat under his pan so he could go give Dan a hand. “Here, let me add the herbs, and then you can stop touching it.”  
  
“Raw meat is the worst man, especially when it’s all squishy like this,” Dan replied defensively, continuing to mix the contents of the bowl with his hands as Barry added varying amounts of herbs just by sight. He was just opening a jar of oregano, when suddenly the room was plunged into darkness.  
  
“What the fuck?” Barry asked, looking around and struggling to see as his eyes adjusted to the abrupt change in light. Dan groaned beside him, his hands still in the meat mixture, and now he couldn’t even see.  
  
“What happened?” He asked, as Barry felt his way over to the table, managing to find his phone and turn on the flash so they had a light source. He made sure to keep it lowered as he turned back to Dan, not wanting to blind his boyfriend.  
  
“The wind sounds bad,” he observed, lifting the kitchen blind and nodding to himself at the flurry of snow he could make out in the dark outside, the night pitch black without the street lights. “Power cut,” he and Dan said simultaneously.  
  
“We’ve probably got candle here somewhere,” Danny assured, finally removing his hands from the bowl. “Hey, can you shine the light on the sink for a second so I can wash this off?”  
  
After cleaning up and hunting for candles and matches, Dan and Barry ended up back on the couch, the room lit by a dim and flickering glow, shadows thrown against the wall in odd, moving shapes. The room also ended up smelling sweeter, almost sickeningly sweet, as most of the candles Dan had found were scented ones. But, he knew beggars couldn’t be choosers, and both he and Barry agreed that overbearingly pleasant smells was a price they were willing to pay for having some light in the house. Anything would be better than sitting in the dark waiting for the power to come back on.   
  
Dan had managed to find a few old board games in his closet upstairs that his mother had never thrown out, for whatever bizarre reason. So now they were sat on the floor playing operation and having way too much fun given that they were both grown men and this game was designed for six-year-olds. Still, they had sandwiches, cookies and the remains of Barry’s candy supply as a makeshift dinner, and managed to get a good thirty minutes of entertainment out of it. Things got increasingly intense after Dan had got bored and decided they should start operating the tweezers with their mouths, and he even tried to convince Barry to use his toes at one point.  
  
“Man, it’s freezing in here,” Barry had argued. “There’s no way I’m taking off my socks and getting cold feet just so you can laugh at me.”  
  
“Fine then, if you’re gonna be boring,” Dan sighed, packing up the game that he’d now grown tired of and unpacking battleships instead. However, after Barry won three games in a row, Dan wasn’t all too keen on that either.  
  
“How could I have been cheating at a guessing game?” Barry asked through his laughter, watching a sulky Dan pack the game away.  
  
“I don’t know, Barry, maybe you can read my mind!” Dan exclaimed, full of disbelief that he’d had his ass kicked majorly, and more than once too.   
  
“Well, if I _could_ read your mind I wouldn’t let myself win three games in a row, because then it would be obvious that I was reading your mind,” Barry pointed out, picking up stray pegs which he’d dropped on the floor throughout the course of their games and hadn’t bothered to retrieve immediately.   
  
“That’s exactly what a mind reader would say to cover up the fact that he got carried away with his mind reading,” Dan said calmly, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you’d betray my trust in you like this, Barry. Honestly, you think you love a guy and then he reads your mind to beat you at battleships.”  
  
“Shut up you big nerd,” Barry laughed, tackling Dan so he was laying on the carpet and then kissing him deeply, affectionately, to ensure he didn’t go on about mind reading any longer. Dan pushed up so he was sitting, Barry in his lap and arms wrapped around the shorter man as made out, tongues twisting together slowly, soft and gentle sighs of pleasure being drawn from each of them. When they parted Dan bumped their noses together affectionately, still keeping Barry close.  
  
“I’m sorry I accused you of being a mind reader,” he teased, making Barry burst into laughter.  
  
“I forgive you, don’t worry,” the younger man assured. “You wanna go to bed and snuggle to really make it up to me?” He asked, getting an eager nod in reply. Barry  got to his feet and Dan followed suit, picking up the boxes so he could return them to his closet.  
  
“Can you put the candles out? But bring one with you so we can actually see,” he added quickly. Barry nodded his head, extinguishing the flames and making sure all the light switches were off downstairs, just in case the power came back on. They made their way to bed and waited until they were settled down before Barry blew out the last candle and turned to nuzzle into Danny’s chest, his boyfriend’s arms wrapping around him and kisses being pressed to the top of his head as they enjoyed each other’s warmth.  
  
“I’d say that was a pretty great start to our holiday,” Barry murmured and he felt Dan nod against his own head.  
  
“Aside from our ruined dinner, it was great,” he hummed.  
  
“Hey, it’s not my fault the power went out.”  
  
“Never said it was, baby,” Dan replied in a low voice before giving a yawn.   
  
“Oh my god, Dan,” Barry said suddenly, his eyes flying open in the dark. “We spent the night with no power and a ton of candles and we didn’t even light a menorah.”  
  
“Barry, it’s Saturday,” Danny rumbled sleepily. “If you really wanna have do the whole Hanukkah thing, we’ll do it when it’s actually Hanukkah.”  
  
“Oh. Woops,” Barry laughed, settling down again. “But can we really do that?”  
  
“Sure, Barry. We’ll have our first Hanukkah together,” Dan managed to mumble in reply before drifting off to sleep. Barry grinned at the idea and pressed himself closer to his boyfriend, following Dan into blissful unconsciousness. He had no idea why, but he fell asleep feeling oddly excited about a holiday he hadn’t even celebrated properly in years.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm avidanhanson on tumblr if anyone wants to throw more ideas at me so I can ramble on for eight pages and have nothing important happen. Or maybe I'll mix it up and actually write something that does have a plot! We'll see.


End file.
